On Turning Sappy: some thoughts about Christmas

I’ll admit it.  I’m kind of a Grinch.  I like the Christmas season, but left to my own devices, I would be a minimalist about it.  The thing is, now I’m a mom, and that’s not an option.  As everyone keeps reminding me, it’s my job to create meaningful traditions for my kids, like my mom did for me, the dearest of which I still keep.
This is the first year my kids really get it.  They are three and a half and they’ll be in the preschool Christmas pageant.  They know the story of the baby Jesus, of Saint Nicholas, and they can sing lots of carols.  (They also know about Hanukkah, but DD seems to confuse it with Halloween, because according to her there are some people that don’t celebrate Christmas but who light seven candles and get to wear princess costumes instead.)
The kids’ excitement and wonder is precious, and so I don’t mind the decorating and the music.  Plus, as all you parents out there know, the more crafts and activities on hand, the easier it is to manage 3.5 year old twins, who start messing with each other given an idle second.  The giant box of festive foam-sticker crafts my aunt sends is a lifesaver!
So I’m becoming less of a Grinch, but even more, I am becoming out right sappy.  This morning in the car, I got weepy at the words to the Victorian Christmas carol “I Saw Three Ships,” specifically the line “And all the bells on earth shall ring.”
What an image, when you stop to consider it!  The whole world proclaiming peace and love by ringing bells simultaneously. Like a ginormous, universal wedding peal, thinks this romance writer.
The church season of Advent is all about longing for a future of peace, as the medieval hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” says:
O come, Desire of nations, bind

In one the hearts of all mankind;

Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,

And be Thyself our King of Peace.
My personal longing is not for a world where suddenly everyone accepts Jesus as their king, but that all of us stop caring about being right or powerful, and simply make peace.
Every time I turn on the news, I long for it more.
Every time I have to explain the brokenness of the world to my kids, I long for it more.
I think that’s why I’m turning into a sap.
And this morning in the car, with the kids in their car seats, I started outright bawling at  “Do you Hear What I hear?”  A shepherd boy who goes to the king, to tell him about a child, shivering in the cold? Gah! What mother can listen to that without crying?
Said the king to the people everywhere,

listen to what I say

Pray for peace, people everywhere! 
This year, when I hear these Christmas songs, I can’t help but think of the baby Jesus as every child born into poverty, oppression, unjustly killed.
So yeah. I’m a sap. And I’ll decorate and make crafts and drink peppermint mochas and take hundred of pictures of my mini-shepherd and my mini-angel and keep listening to Raffi Christmas in the car.  But now, in a way I didn’t really understand before, I know I’m doing it all to teach my kids to see what’s wrong in the world, and to work to change those things.  And of course, to pray for peace, with people everywhere.
My parents are divorced, and as salient as any holiday memories are the terrible fights they had over putting up the Christmas tree (I know, I know–the mystery of my Grinchdom explained!).  Last year, my husband and I made the strategic marital decision to buy an artificial tree.  I’m sure there will still be plenty of stress this season, but we want our kids to remember love and peace in our home, not arguments about whether the trunk is straight.
And when I’m all prayed out, or the Christmas cheer gets to be too much, I am going to pour myself a bourbon with a splash of eggnog, cuddle up with my husband on the couch, and read (or sometimes write) a romance novel.

Want to play a Romance scavenger hunt?


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I’m participating in a fun author video scavenger hunt this month.  It’s hosted by Rachel at the RayKayBooks blog.  You can find an explanation here, with links to all the videos and giveaways, including the chance to have a secondary character in one of my books named after you.

My novella One Sinful Night in Sao Paulo will release Jan 5th from Entangled Publishing.  For news of that release and future books, please Sign up for my newsletter